For this first time this year went out of Bolles Harbour and tried Michigan’s southern waters. Started late around 1 pm with some 2 to 3 foot waves. One perch is all that got pulled out of the dumping grounds. Its a pretty slow start!
Moved north just on the south side of the shallow side of the coal plant (MPP) and stopped in 18 fow. Nothing at first, then the anchor slipped until it caught again. Sometimes dumb luck, is the best kind of luck folks. First fish was a 10 inch beaut!
Ended up with over 40 for the day, all but a few who swallowed the hook being 9 inch or better. Three things kept us from going longer, bigger waves, rain and nothing left but jumbo shiners in the bucket. Perch would come up and suck on the big ones. Had several come up to the boat only holding on to the tail of the shiner, before dropping back down again.
We used vertical perch rigs all day, seems to be the best results this year coming on them. Mine came on #8 Mustad Ultra Point hooks with a single glow or yellow pearl bead above the hook. The neighbor used the snells I made up with two beads and #0 metal klacker blades I had painted white on the fronts. Both produced equally well on either side of the boat. The colors on the perch were more yellow than green, not sure if the winds had beat them up the last couple of weeks or what. 1 oz sinkers were ok, but as the day progressed and the waves built up, 1.5 or 2 oz would have been better to get the job done.
Going to break in the drumm scaler and see how she rolls this afternoon after getting some work done. Looking forward to trying it out, just might have to go into the fish cleaning biz to make it pay off.
Still lots of fishing left to do out there, good luck.